1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an annular distributor having a guide vane to improve flow rate distribution therein, and a reactor or a heat exchanger having the annular distributor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a multitubular catalytic reactor in the form of a heat exchanger is used for the purpose of efficiently removing heat produced in reaction. Such a reactor has solid catalyst filled in a plurality of reaction tubes, and supplies reaction gas into the reaction tubes to create chemical reaction in order to obtain a desired component. In addition, heat medium circulates through a reactor shell so that the chemical reaction can take place in an optimum condition.
The multitubular catalytic reactor tends to have hot spots at specific areas of the reaction tubes. Such a hot spot causes problems such as shortened lifetime and degraded selectivity for a target product owing to the deterioration of the catalyst. Thus, various approaches have been promoted to achieve efficient heat transfer to the reaction tubes inside the reactor in order to decrease the hot spots.
For example, Korean Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-0050267 discloses a multitubular reactor including a circulation unit for a heat medium and doughnut and disk-shaped baffle plates equipped in a shell. This approach attempts to maintain the flow rate of the heat medium in a specific area inside the reactor in order to improve heat transfer performance. In addition, openings, such as slits, are arranged intermittently along the periphery of a slit layer of an annular distributor so that an offset flow of the heat medium supplied (or discharged) through one duct can be supplied (or discharged) into the reactor uniformly in a circumferential direction. Such an annular distributor is designed to achieve a controlled flow of the heat medium to be uniformly supplied (or discharged) in a radial direction in order to lower hot spot temperature of the reaction tubes. Furthermore, a lot of openings are provided in rows and the number and sizes are adjusted in order to make the flow of the heat medium uniform.
However, by merely adjusting the number and size of the slit openings of the annular distributor in the reactor or heat exchanger, it is not possible to efficiently distribute the heat medium supplied into the annular distributor in order to enhance local heat transfer efficiency up to a desirable value.